red sox are in a similar situation with pap as the celts were with perk. everyone knows he is likely walking after this year. there are replacements all over the roster, kind of like their shaq and jo equivalents. yet theo has made it clear pap is hi scloser and will likely stick with him for the year. deal with the consequences after the year. in baseball, a closer is indispensable. you do not want risk there. perk proved when he got back that he could still play in the same way that pap has now proven that he can still play. perhaps danny should have just let things play themselves out and gone for a rasual butler type for now. we'll see how it all turns out. if we lose to the knicks and okc gets to the final, danny will be in the crossfire big time with major fallout all around him!

Many of us have been saying this for weeks. I never thought this was a good trade. Since Perk was injured they couldn't have traded him until late in the season. The end of the season is not the time to make trades and try to develop team chemistry. If Shaq returns and is able to really contribute during the playoffs, then the Celtics may still have a chance of advancing. If Shaq is only able to play limited minutes, I don't see the Celtics advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.

red sox are in a similar situation with pap as the celts were with perk. everyone knows he is likely walking after this year. there are replacements all over the roster, kind of like their shaq and jo equivalents. yet theo has made it clear pap is hi scloser and will likely stick with him for the year. deal with the consequences after the year. in baseball, a closer is indispensable. you do not want risk there. perk proved when he got back that he could still play in the same way that pap has now proven that he can still play. perhaps danny should have just let things play themselves out and gone for a rasual butler type for now. we'll see how it all turns out. if we lose to the knicks and okc gets to the final, danny will be in the crossfire big time with major fallout all around him!Posted by COMMUNIST-CONTRARIAN

The new CBA will have a hard cap at about 60 million and Perk will be making around 9 million per year - 15% of your cap for a center with no skills..... all set.... good luck getting more players OKC.

As I have said many times, it wasn't about Perk. It was about Marquis going down. He was our best sub SF, and suddenly we had none. Danny felt he had to do something, and tried killing two birds with one stone.

As Scott wrote while he was freezing to death in Antarctica: "We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause to complain."

red sox are in a similar situation with pap as the celts were with perk. everyone knows he is likely walking after this year. there are replacements all over the roster, kind of like their shaq and jo equivalents. yet theo has made it clear pap is hi scloser and will likely stick with him for the year. deal with the consequences after the year. in baseball, a closer is indispensable. you do not want risk there. perk proved when he got back that he could still play in the same way that pap has now proven that he can still play. perhaps danny should have just let things play themselves out and gone for a rasual butler type for now. we'll see how it all turns out. if we lose to the knicks and okc gets to the final, danny will be in the crossfire big time with major fallout all around him!Posted by COMMUNIST-CONTRARIAN

As I have said many times, it wasn't about Perk. It was about Marquis going down. He was our best sub SF, and suddenly we had none. Danny felt he had to do something, and tried killing two birds with one stone. As Scott wrote while he was freezing to death in Antarctica: "We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause to complain."Posted by Number6Fan

The Celtics definitely needed a backup once Marquis was injured. I believe this could have been accomplished by a trade for a combination of some of the players that were traded for a decent backup small/power forward. You don't trade one of your starters for a couple of backups. It was a bad decision.

I agree, as much as I liked Perkins, Marquis going down with that season ending injury sent the rotation into disarray. we where playing very good basketball around that time. It could had been worst, Marquis could have been injured after the trading deadline and then what? On paper Ainge got a good deal but he understimated team chemistry and the intangibles.

No sense in crying over spilled milk and the what ifs. It is what it is. I hope Rondo and the big three switch it on like last year, however, I am doubtful. Right now the Knicks is the target and I know that Pierce loves to play in MSG. I saw him there in the year that they went to the conference finals with Antoine Walker. Antoine hit a three in the clutch to win the game from the middle.

Boston will be allright.... Well as long as Rondo grows a pair and becomes the exciting point guard of last years Bulls series.

I keep hearing this theory that if Shaq is healthy we made a good trade.. I dont get it. The trade was either good.. or bad. If we do well in the playoffs does shaq get a Monopoly card that makes him 8 years younger? Nope.. he's still old and will still break every other game from just trotting down the court.

However OKC will now have one of the best offensive duos in the game and now a defensive anchor to compliment. All of them young and ready to produce for years to come. Good job Ainge.. you could have built around Rondo and Perk but instead would rather hope Green can be the next paul pierce and bet the franchizes next 8 years on it.

Everyone keeps saying this is because of the Perk trade. Well, it's not. The perk trade was a good deal, and the celts would have been better off if that was the only trade they had made. It's the other trades he made that day that completely killed the bench. Perk is a loser on winning teams.

Perk was quoted in saying he was shocked and very much troubled by the trade. Maybe he postured to try and get more money out of the celts, thinking they wouldnt trade him. Surely they wouldnt trade ME(perk) a young.. hard to come by.. defensive powerhouse.. for some Bench players to MAYBE be a starter in 2-3 years.......... SUPRISE!

In Response to AINGE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PAPELBON APPROACH WITH PERK! : The new CBA will have a hard cap at about 60 million and Perk will be making around 9 million per year - 15% of your cap for a center with no skills..... all set.... good luck getting more players OKC.Posted by TheDUDDER

So don't re-sign him. Why jeopardize your team now for a problem that does not even have to affect the team until the off-season?

obtw... Skilled or not, he made the skilled players work better as a unit.

As I have said many times, it wasn't about Perk. It was about Marquis going down. He was our best sub SF, and suddenly we had none. Danny felt he had to do something, and tried killing two birds with one stone. As Scott wrote while he was freezing to death in Antarctica: "We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause to complain."Posted by Number6Fan

I don't see the logic behind trading away your starting center (proven to be solid enough in a championship run - two, in fact) because of concerns with a sub-SF. If that was really what Ainge was thinking then I am going with the guys asking for his head.

In Response to Re: AINGE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PAPELBON APPROACH WITH PERK! : So don't re-sign him. Why jeopardize your team now for a problem that does not even have to affect the team until the off-season? obtw... Skilled or not, he made the skilled players work better as a unit.Posted by seattlepat70

the team clearly was emotionally invested in having him around and looked to their fallen soldier returning. period, unless we win it all, this will go down as a BAD TRADE! dany took the highest of high risks. even if this works, one only has so many odds before they turn against you. no one can win the lottery everyday. had kg gone down or a pierce, this risk could have been justified. all he needed was a sf. he could have had received an adequate backup for the combo of nate, luke and semih! just semih and nate would have done it.

In Response to Re: AINGE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PAPELBON APPROACH WITH PERK! : So don't re-sign him. Why jeopardize your team now for a problem that does not even have to affect the team until the off-season? obtw... Skilled or not, he made the skilled players work better as a unit.uPosted by seattlepat70

u deal with next season next season at this point for the celts. okc went all in! if they can win it all or just get to the finals,. this trade was more than worth it. not getting perk would have meant likely losing in the second or even the first round. a core of perk-durant-westbrook-harden is more than adequate for the future. u can easily build around that!

people,perkins was walking after the year,and miami was going to get him!couldnt let him go free,had to get something,dont u think?????/Posted by okdude73401

pap is walking too. if you can win it all, y take the risk? y didnt the bulls trade pippen and rodman or jordan himself in jordan's last year when everyone knew it was over after that championship run? having perk-shaq-jo-semih would have put the odds in our favor. ray can opt out after this off-season. right now if we do not make a run, y would ray not atleast consider going to the heat even for less money? or the laker? kobey to the 3 and ray at the 2 with artest off the bench? life is uncertain. this trade set a lot of things in motion. u lose with perk and odds are doc and ray return no matter what happens. now, this is a child no one will want at the first sign of any negative result. all the games we lost recently would have happened during that period perk was injured but all the games we have lost to maximize uncertainty as of late likely do not happen! perk-jo-semih would have been better than what we have now with jo-nen.

" if we lose to the knicks and okc gets to the final, danny will be in the crossfire big time with major fallout all around him" This is a point I and others have been making for a while (worrying about Perk in the offseason, focusing on winning a ring now) However you have been making the opposite point and defending the Perk trade at every opportunity, talking constantly about how Shaq + JO + Krstic is way better than Perk. I don't know whether I should be congratulating you for coming to your senses or asking you to call yourself self-contrarian from now on. It would be nice if you could at least admit that you changed your mind on this and perhaps apologize for jamming the "Perk trade was good" Koolaid down on us for weeks now.

Posted by BostonTrollSpanker

The Celtics may or may not win the title, but anyone who still insists that the Perk trade was good is delusional. If they win it will be despite the Perk trade.

" if we lose to the knicks and okc gets to the final, danny will be in the crossfire big time with major fallout all around him" This is a point I and others have been making for a while (worrying about Perk in the offseason, focusing on winning a ring now) However you have been making the opposite point and defending the Perk trade at every opportunity, talking constantly about how Shaq + JO + Krstic is way better than Perk. I don't know whether I should be congratulating you for coming to your senses or asking you to call yourself self-contrarian from now on. It would be nice if you could at least admit that you changed your mind on this and perhaps apologize for jamming the "Perk trade was good" Koolaid down on us for weeks now.Posted by BostonTrollSpanker

great points. troll, i can separate my feelings from the FACTS! my feelings asa fan is that they can still win it all and that this can work out. the facts as of now are AGAINST that! putting all your eggs on a shaky 39 yo is high risk. same with a 32 yo JO. perk was a 26 yo with some injury issues. still better to go with the youngie all things being equal. i am just putting it out there that its all about RESULTS! even if we win it all, danny should not make this approach his life mission. its like the croc hunter, just a better time before tragedy happens. again, taking a big risk because kg goes down would be justified, but this was about replacing a pedestrian multi-talented BACKUP swingman in daniels. if we win it all, danny is a genius and i was right the first time. if we don't esp if the knicks beat us, everything about danny and this team as presently constiituted is FOREVER destroyed or tarnished. losing in the same way with a perk would be very different. danny went out of his way to throw that baby out with the bathwater or cut off his nose to spite his face. you hope it all works out, but again based on the results (esp shaq getting hurt in 5 minutes) this was an unnecessary risk. then again if perk pulls a bynum in the first game and shaq plays well throughout the first round, danny would be a genius again!

In Response to Re: AINGE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PAPELBON APPROACH WITH PERK! : pap is walking too. if you can win it all, y take the risk? y didnt the bulls trade pippen and rodman or jordan himself in jordan's last year when everyone knew it was over after that championship run? having perk-shaq-jo-semih would have put the odds in our favor. ray can opt out after this off-season. right now if we do not make a run, y would ray not atleast consider going to the heat even for less money? or the laker? kobey to the 3 and ray at the 2 with artest off the bench? life is uncertain. this trade set a lot of things in motion. u lose with perk and odds are doc and ray return no matter what happens. now, this is a child no one will want at the first sign of any negative result. all the games we lost recently would have happened during that period perk was injured but all the games we have lost to maximize uncertainty as of late likely do not happen! perk-jo-semih would have been better than what we have now with jo-nen.Posted by COMMUNIST-CONTRARIAN

Very great post. I was uncertain about this trade as I saw benefits either way(doing it and not doing it). While I initially leaned towards Ainge's decision I would have to say now (hindsight): 1. You don't mess with chemistry when it is successful 2. You win a championship when you can. 3. You don't trade a starter for a sub. 4. You don't give away a promising backup(Erden).

In Response to Re: AINGE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PAPELBON APPROACH WITH PERK! : So don't re-sign him. Why jeopardize your team now for a problem that does not even have to affect the team until the off-season? obtw... Skilled or not, he made the skilled players work better as a unit.Posted by seattlepat70

Played 12 games and they had a worse winning percentage with him than in the 43 games that they had played prior to his return.....

I think there are posters that have convinced themselves that Perk somehow guided them to the best record in the east when in reality he was not even playing.

Would not affect the team until the season???? So after the season they get nothing but at the trade deadline they get a very good young player and a very good back up center.... that seems like getting a little more than nothing which is what they would have gotten had they not traded Perk.....